The 20th century was a remarkable era for science and technology, a time when
humans broke the bonds of gravity to visit the moon, broke the bonds of atoms to
unleash the fundamental forces of nature, and broke the bonds of time to
communicate and share information worldwide within an instant. Despite such
progress, the century ended with concerns expressed about what Americans should
know and be able to do in a world shaped by science and technology (Rutherford
& Ahlgren, 1990). A vision of what seemed desirable led to the development
of national standards in science and mathematics education (National Research
Council, 1996; National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2000), and waves of
systemic reform swept through schools (Webb, 1999).

As we enter the 21st century, we wonder who will provide the instructional
leadership to bring substance to our vision of literacy in science and
mathematics. Though some hold designated roles as school leaders, we have known
for some time that school principals are generally not perceived as
instructional leaders, and that instructional leadership in the most effective
schools is a shared responsibility (Pellicer, Anderson, Keefe, Kelley, &
McCleary, 1990). Lambert (1998) said, in fact, that we often make the mistake of
viewing leadership as being synonymous with assigned or formal roles. More
recently, it has been acknowledged that "teachers are the best and most abundant
source of leadership--for our schools" (Pellicer & Anderson, 2001) and that
"if schools are to be restructured successfully, teachers must assume a variety
of important instructional leadership responsibilities" (p. 14).

HOW TEACHERS LEAD

There have long been formal leadership
roles for teachers as department chairs, team leaders, and a variety of other
positions, but titles are less important than actually functioning as effective
change-agents. Teachers participating in a National Teacher Forum (Paulu, 1998)
characterized teachers as exhibiting leadership by:

1.
Participating in professional teacher organizations, including holding positions
of influence.

2.
Taking part in school decisions, including working on teams with administrators
to plan school improvements.

3.
Defining what students need to know and be able to do, including developing
standards for curriculum and assessments.

4.
Sharing ideas with colleagues, including leading professional development
programs for colleagues.

5.
Being a mentor to new teachers.

6.
Helping to make personnel decisions, including the hiring of new teachers and
administrators

7.
Improving facilities and technology.

8.
Working with parents, including the development of better links between schools
and homes.

9.
Creating partnerships with the community, including working with communities to
improve the schools.

10.
Creating partnerships with business and organizations, taking the lead in
forming partnerships.

13.
Becoming politically involved, including running for elected to offices,
testifying before state legislatures, working on political campaigns, or serving
on education advisory boards that report to the governor or the state department
of education.

14.
Leading efforts to make teachers more visible and communicate positive
information.

This is a rather long list of specific ways that teachers exhibit leadership,
but is there a more succinct way of characterizing the essential nature of
leadership in education? After interviewing 43 educational leaders, Goldberg
(2001) reported five commonalities that stood out among those he interviewed:

1.
A bedrock belief that what they are doing is good and important.

2.
The courage to swim upstream, persevering in their beliefs in the face of
resistance or criticism.

3.
A social conscience, particularly on issues of racism and poverty.

4.
A seriousness of purpose, holding high standards and devoting years of sustained
involvement in their causes.

This last characteristic is one that makes it impossible to specify a generic
set of skills or understandings that one needs to become a leader in education.
Leadership in education is very situational, and those who would lead must
develop their leadership style to match the context of their sphere of
influence.

BRINGING FOCUS TO LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

There have been a
variety of formal approaches to cultivating leadership among science and
mathematics teachers (Nesbit, Wallace, Pugalee, Miller, & Dibiase, 2001),
and no one approach has emerged as the most effective in all situations. Indeed,
in a study of 15 two-year lead teacher professional development programs in
science and mathematics, six identifiable leadership models were noted (Wallace,
Nesbit, & Miller, 1999). Examples of teacher leaders were found to span the
spectrum from classroom teachers who demonstrate and model new techniques within
their own classrooms to highly proactive "change agents" who challenge, inspire,
and motivate colleagues to initiate school wide change. Is there a way of
bringing focus to the identification and cultivation of teacher leaders in
science and mathematics?

In their study of 354 teacher leaders participating in 15 two-year
professional development programs, Nesbit, DiBiase, Miller, and Wallace (2001)
analyzed evaluation reports and conducted interviews. They found three broad
categories of factors to be most influential in supporting the development of
leadership roles:

2.
Factors related to the modes of professional development, from receiving
curriculum materials to observing teaching and leadership techniques, receiving
ongoing support from a professional development staff, and analyzing a school's
strengths and weaknesses.

3.
Factors related to the development of leadership skills, both through learning
about leadership skills (i.e. presentation skills, team-building skills) and
concepts (i.e. the change process, adult development), and through planning and
practicing leadership skills. This could include working with other teacher
leaders on instruction, resolving leadership challenges, becoming familiar with
school improvement plans, or role playing.

The authors noted that the first two broad categories are typically addressed
in professional development programs, and their importance is well supported by
the literature in the field. The unique contribution of this study is the clear
identification of explicit development of leadership skills as being a key
component in cultivating teacher leaders in science and mathematics. There is
little research identifying the essential elements of this component, however,
and it is often neglected in teacher leader development programs.

DiRanna
and Loucks-Horsley (2001) also stated that "teacher leaders must develop
expertise in organization design, change theory, adult learning, management
skills, decision making, public relations, and handholding." To these basic
skills, Pugalee, Frykholm, and Shaka (2001) would add the need for teacher
leaders to embrace issues of equity and assist in the development of technology
plans for schools and districts. Following are some resources that will help
professional development teams cultivate the growth of teacher leaders.

RESOURCES FOR CULTIVATING LEADERSHIP

This
book offers an alternative strategy to the one-time workshops and institutes
typically used for cultivating leadership skills: the case method long used in
preparing doctors and lawyers. Cases are used to illustrate and provoke
discussions of many challenges and dilemmas faced by teacher leaders, whether
novices or highly experienced. Along with the cases, there are guidelines for
facilitating rich discussions.

Professional and Leadership Development

http://www.nsba.org/sbot/toolkit/P&LDev.html

Though
designed for school board members, this directory of online resources includes
practical guidelines of identifying and cultivating leadership in educational
settings. This resources ahs been developed by project of the National School
Boards Foundation with a grant from the National Science Foundation.

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